PRESIDENT TRUMP ordered the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner Friday following a dismal jobs report.
The Labor Department reported the U.S. economy added only 73,000 jobs in July, below estimates. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2 percent.
The report included a substantial downward adjustment to previous employment data, shaving 258,000 jobs from the prior two reports.
The U.S. added only 19,000 jobs in May compared to an initial report of 144,000, and only 14,000 in June after an initial report of 147,000, BLS said.
The Hill's Sylvan Lane writes: "While the BLS often revises job figures, the scale of the revisions — and what they said about the economy — stunned experts and investors after a week of relatively solid economic data."
In a post on Truth Social this afternoon, Trump said he directed his team to fire BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, baselessly accusing her of having "faked the Jobs Numbers" before the 2024 election in order to boost former Vice President Kamala Harris's White House bid.
Trump cited revisions during the Biden administration that at the time boosted job numbers before the election.
"No one can be that wrong?" Trump said. "We need accurate Jobs Numbers."
"She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified," the president continued. "Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes."
An administration official later confirmed the firing to The Hill.
McEntarfer was nominated by Biden in 2023 and confirmed by the Senate in early 2024 in a 86-8 vote. Vice President Vance, then serving as an Ohio senator, voted to confirm her.
Democrats are outraged.
"Instead of helping people get good jobs, Donald Trump just fired the statistician who reported bad jobs data that the wanna-be king doesn't like," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) posted on X.
The Labor Department report comes two days after the Federal Reserve voted to keep interest rates steady, though two members dissented in calling for lower rates. The jobs report could add pressure on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to lower rates in September — if not sooner.
Trump reignited his criticism of Powell in the hours before the Labor Department report was released, calling on the central bank board to oust him.
"Jerome 'Too Late' Powell, a stubborn MORON, must substantially lower interest rates, NOW. IF HE CONTINUES TO REFUSE, THE BOARD SHOULD ASSUME CONTROL, AND DO WHAT EVERYONE KNOWS HAS TO BE DONE!" Trump posted.
The president ratcheted up his criticism of Powell throughout the day Friday and eventually called for him to be put "out to pasture."
Stocks fell with the unexpectedly weak jobs data, with the Nasdaq down 2.4 percent in late afternoon trading.
Heather Long, the chief economist for the Navy Federal Credit Union, called the report a "game changer," with many sectors, including manufacturing, retail and government, losing jobs. The health care sector has accounted for most of the jobs created over the past three months.
"This labor market is in trouble," Long posted on X. "Healthcare [and] social assistance are pretty much the only sectors hiring. This is NOT healthy."
"Companies do not want to hire or invest with this much uncertainty about tariffs, inflation, etc.," she added.
Senior administration officials, including Vance, pointed to findings in the jobs report that native-born Americans have gained jobs under the Trump administration, while many of the job losses are at the expense of foreign-born workers.
"I was told 6 months ago that Americans losing jobs and the foreign-born gaining jobs was an irreversible demographic fact," Vance posted on X. "Turns out you just need a new president and a new immigration policy."
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